Panis joins Matech Ford for Ricard
Olivier Panis will join the race-winning Matech Ford team for next weekend's Paul Ricard rounds of the GT1 World Championship
The 1996 Monaco Grand Prix winner is to replace Cyndie Allemann, who has parted company with the team, alongside Natacha Gachnang in what is currently a one-race deal.
"I am delighted to take part in this round with Matech Competition, a professional team with very good results this year," said ORECA Le Mans racer Panis.
"I have always enjoyed driving on the Castellet circuit because this is the place where I drove a single-seater for the first time and I have already run a lot of races here. But this will be the first time I share my seat with a woman, Natacha Gachnang, who shows great determination."
Matech's lead drivers Romain Grosjean and Thomas Mutsch currently share the GT1 drivers' points lead, but the Matech squad trails Vitaphone Maserati by four points in the teams' contest.
Panis is one of two ex-Formula 1 additions to the Ricard GT1 field, with Ricardo Zonta returning to the Reiter Lamborghini line-up for the first time since the Abu Dhabi season-opener.
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